White Boards for Lefties?

[SetApartForHisGlory]

I recently read a post that said Carrie uses small white boards for her sons to do things, like Rod & Staff English, instead of having to write it out on paper. We usually do all the Rod & Staff orally, except worksheets, tests, and bigger assignments that can't be done orally. I thought the white board idea was great, and got one for each child. I told my oldest about it, and she wasn't thrilled. We have done stuff with small white boards before, and she had them in school. She said because she's a lefty, she can't really use them. She said her hand wipes away everything as she's writing to the right. I kind of thought she was exaggerating, but when we used it today I saw how awkwardly she had to position her hand to keep it from rubbing off the dry erase marker. It looked like such a pain!

I was just wondering if anyone else has had this issue, or if maybe she isn't even holding the marker (pen and pencil as well) correctly? I've never noticed anything wrong, she learned to write easily and always had great penmanship, and even taught herself cursive in first grade without being prompted. Or is this a real issue for left-handers, that they are just not able to successfully use dry erase for writing things out?

[farmfamily]

I'm a lefty and my hand does not touch the board when I use a whiteboard. All my kids are righties, but I think their hands don't touch the whiteboard either...
If you need to touch it to steady your hand you can touch beneath your writing, so that erasing won't be a problem.

Of course lefties have many different ways of coping with the smudging problem, and it may be harder for your daughter to adapt her way to the whiteboard. I don't have any problems with whiteboards, but when I signed my daughter's shiny birthday card this week I managed to smudge both my signature and my husband's!

[SetApartForHisGlory]

I can't believe I've never even thought of the fact that lefties might have problems with ink smudging and such. I guess I didn't notice that as a righty I get to have my hand over the clean paper, and that is not the case for left-handers. Is that why we right left to right? I'd imagine back in the quill and ink days it would have been a real problem!

[MomtoJGJE]

She probably just needs to play with it a bit to figure it out. My two oldest are lefties and they don't have trouble.

[daybreaking]

I've taught my righties to use the white board without having their hand touch it. It took some getting used to, as well as several days of reminders, but it was worth the effort, as it is very helpful for keeping their hands clean. Often, I'll have them filling in blanks on the whiteboard and if I didn't teach them to keep their hand off of the board as they write, they'd end up erasing some of what I wrote. Perhaps you could work with your daughter to teach her to write on the board without touching it, thus eliminating the smudge issue?

[rodandmegs]

My two lefties have no trouble writing on a white board. Maybe she's rubbing her hand on the board?

[school4princesses]

I was actually coming to the board to look up "leftie" issues as well. My Leftie has started Cheerful Cursive and is having a difficult time. She understands that in cursive you have to keep your pencil on the paper for the whole word, but she needs to keep lifting her hand up to see what it is she is supposed to write as the model is all presented on the left side of the paper. Very frustrating for her, and for me as well. Has anyone figured out a way around this issue? I'm considering purchasing Conquering Cursive, but the fun level compared to Cheerful Cursive is an issue.

[Nealewill]

I think the regular white boards are fine for lefties but I think SetApartForHisGlory is talking about the small ones that rest on your lap while you write. My kid's hands totally rub all over those things and they are right handed! For one hanging on the wall, no problem. But if you are putting it on your lap and writing, you most likely are resting your hand on it.

In that case, I just use scrap or computer to write on. I have always done this with my kids and I am a righty. I own several of the small white boards but rarely use them. I find my kids just sit and breathe all the while they fidget or make a quick movement and have then inevitably wiped something off. I just can't take the stress LOL. For me, that is where the scrap paper has been a blessing. I take a stack of scrap paper, cut it in half and use that all the time. My kids feel good about it too and they are used to it.

[SetApartForHisGlory]

Yes, the small white boards. The way she has to (or thinks she has to) hold her hand to not smudge it looks super uncomfortable. But if other lefties don't struggle with it, maybe I should pay more attention to how her hand is positioned in general.

[MomtoJGJE]

Just make sure their hand angle (wrist angle?) is basically the same as a right handed person. Make sure they aren't wrapping their hand. If their board is turned properly and their hand is angled correctly, then they should be able to write on the board without smudging.

Same in cheerful Cursive. If they have everything angled correctly, they will be able to see the example.

[farmfamily]

If she holds her whiteboard and her hand the same as a righty and touches the whiteboard she will be erasing her writing (and she will be smudging her writing on paper too). Most lefties, in order to not smudge, to slant their letters correctly, and to see what they are writing either wrap their hand around or turn the paper. I turn the paper maybe a 60 degree angle clockwise so that I am writing on an upward slant, and my hand is above the writing with no contortion of the wrist. On a whiteboard, even a small one, I hold my hand so that it does not touch the whiteboard. If that is difficult for your dd, then I think the scrap paper idea of Daneale is probably best. I use the small whiteboards all the time with my kids. We all like them. But if I had a child that didn't like it, I would switch her to scrap paper. I feel I am already motivating my kids to do plenty of things they don't want to do - no need to add unnecessary battles!

[daybreaking]

I've taught my righties to use the white board without having their hand touch it. It took some getting used to, as well as several days of reminders, but it was worth the effort, as it is very helpful for keeping their hands clean. Often, I'll have them filling in blanks on the whiteboard and if I didn't teach them to keep their hand off of the board as they write, they'd end up erasing some of what I wrote. Perhaps you could work with your daughter to teach her to write on the board without touching it, thus eliminating the smudge issue?

We've been successful doing the above with the small white boards, too. One technique that has helped is to have the children hold the markers a bit higher up, rather than close to the tip as they would with pencils. I think of it similarly to someone with a paintbrush, where they wouldn't want to smudge their painting. (ex. My children do watercoloring on a horizontal surface (our table) and hold the brush in such a way as to not touch the paper.) HTH

[SetApartForHisGlory]

Thanks everybody!

[daybreaking]

I thought I'd add that it might also help to have your daughter hold the board up slightly (at a 30-45 degree angle), leaning it against the side of the table while resting the base on her abdomen. I noticed my son doing that yesterday and thought it might help in your situation.

[SetApartForHisGlory]

Thank you, daybreaking!